Biography

Michael Chacon has been providing professional strategic business and technical solutions to a wide variety of organizations for over 25 years. Much of this broad experience was acquired consulting with Fortune 1000 companies in Europe, Asia, Australia, and throughout the United States. His background presents a unique capability, bridging the all too common gap between organizational operations and the supporting IT operational framework. As Chief Information Officer for the College of Western Idaho, his fundamental guiding principle remains. Technology should be considered a subservient tool, appropriately applied through IT operations, to support and execute the college’s goals and objectives; not vice versa.

Michael’s combination of business and technical experience is also relevant in the management of cross-functional teams, which are essential to the professional design of an effective ITIL based operational framework. These teams are necessary to accurately uncover and document the processes, procedures, and policies that must be mapped to the supporting technologies, comprising the foundation of the IT operational framework. These skills are also useful in presenting the value propositions to both management and stakeholders, as well as the development of the training requirements for the users and the support team.

The iterative Agile framework has been the foundation of Michael’s approach to working through and prioritizing the myriad of issues in any organization for over 15 years. The transparency and visibility which is the foundation of Agile provides the organization with the actionable information necessary to facilitate and rank the value delivered of competing initiatives. He thinks it is important to note that Agile is not simply for software development; it for any area of an organization that is dealing with complex competing issues, where the solutions are not well-defined and are encumbered with inherent risk.   

Over the years Mr. Chacon has published several books and hundreds of peer reviewed articles in professional journals on enterprise systems architecture and its application to business operations. These professional journals include Network Magazine, SQL Forum Journal, 3Com Technical Journal, Communications Week, Computer Reseller News, LAN Magazine, and Windows IT Pro. Michael was also a featured columnist and contributing editor for Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine for six years. In addition, Michael has been a featured speaker and contributor at professional technical conferences such as TechEd, WinConnections, Netscape, TechMentor, Networld, Networkers, DEC Symposium, Kinexions, and others.